Overview: Streams, riparian zones, and hillslopes have been intensively studied at small spatial scales (stream reaches <1 km, plots of a few m2). At the other end of the spectrum, entire catchments have been studied without explicit understanding of how different landscape units interact. In this project, we will address the connections between stream networks, riparian zones and hillslope landscape units.

We will address the following questions:

How can plot-scale measurements of the hydrologic processes that link hillslopes to riparian areas be scaled up to whole catchments?

How can reach-scale measurements of groundwater-surface water mixing in riparian and hyporheic zones be scaled up to entire stream networks?

How can we transfer our small-catchment scale understanding to larger portions of the landscape or other catchments?

These questions currently limit our ability to transfer our understanding of hydrological processes studied at the plot or reach scale to larger catchments. These questions beg integrated, multi-scale approaches that combine landscape level topographic analysis, process-based field investigations, and catchment-scale integration to identify the factors controlling the hydrologic connectivity between source areas generating runoff and the flow paths that link source areas to streams.

This project is funded through the National Science Foundation's Hydrologic Sciences program. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos. EAR-0337781 and EAR-0337650. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.